‘Bigger fines won’t make us any safer’
August 17, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: Compliance, construction safety, contractor safety, cost of safety, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, OSHA news, Who Got Fined and Why?
PDF The head of Oregon OSHA has suggested raising fines for serious workplace safety violations. But some large companies say higher fines won’t make them any safer.
Dan Kavanaugh, vice president and general manager with Turner Construction Co. in Oregon, told the Daily Journal of Commerce, “Money is not the motivator. A fine doesn’t mean anything to us.”
Dan Johnson, vice president of operations for Sakanska USA, agrees. “If they raised fines, would that become a motivation? I’m thinking ‘no.’”
However, Johnson says higher fines could be big financial hits for small and mid-sized construction companies.
Oregon OSHA administrator Michael Wood realizes that the fines he’s proposing still wouldn’t have a significant impact on the largest companies.
Wood is considering setting the cap for the most severe violations at $7,000. Now, it’s $5,000.
When a state OSHA inspects a company after a fatality, even the $5,000 fines can add up.
Recently, Oregon OSHA announced penalties totaling $90,000 against ConAgra Foods and a company performing repairs at a ConAgra plant in connection with an incident in which a welder was killed.
Wood acknowledges that ConAgra’s portion of the fine, $65,000, won’t be a big hit for such a large company. Besides raising fines, he’s considering a sliding scale based on company size.
Do you think OSHA fines are real motivation for companies to improve their safety? Is it different for larger vs. smaller companies? Should fines be higher for larger companies? Let me know in the Comments Box below.
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Tags: ConAgra, higher OSHA fines, Oregon OSHA
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August 17th, 2009 at 8:50 am
I believe it should be on a sliding scale. A $100,000 fine could cripple a small company while a larger company wouldn’t even notice it. Safety should be a priority for all companies regardless of size and clearly, large fines don’t “scare” large companies into compliance. It’s sad some companies don’t want to protect thier employees.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Bigger fines won’t be a motivating factor. I’ve found that even when you constantly remind employees about safety glasses, hearing protection and safety shoes that it falls on deaf ears. ultimately it’s the employees responsibility. If the company provides the training and the constant reminding to the employees and they decide not to do it it’s their fault. I’m don’t mean to sound unsympathetic but you can’t watch everyone all the time. The individual should be able to deturmine if they want to go home and see thier families at night and an OSHA fine to the company does not bring that indivdual back to life.
August 24th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Brian,
If your employees don’t follow the rules, then you should be disciplining them. Instead, you are at fault for allowing them to willfully not listen instead of doing something about it.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:01 am
The problem is that OSHA is a money making organization. They so much as admit it by saying we know higher fines won’t make anyone safer, but we’re going to do it anyway. In the end, employees and employers have an equal share in safety. There are too many people willing to always say it’s the employers responsibility no matter what if an accident happens. An employer can train, reprimand and retrain all day long, only to still get the blame either by OSHA or the employee. If you do discipline all the way to termination, you end up in court for wrongful discharge. If we want safer workplaces, we need to make the employees take responsibility for themselves too. Pro-rate the fines based on the percentage of guilt by the employer and the employee. If it was totally the employers fault, then they get the whole fine. Same goes for the employee, if he was trained and broke the rules, then he should be responsbile for his share of the fine.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:53 am
I have worked on both Turner and Skanska construction sites as a subcontractor. They have no business commenting on the issue because they freely violate safety rules. Even when safety issues are raised they still push forward with what they want you to do to get the job done. It is hilarious to hear them commenting on safety. Take the worker that was killed at a Turner site in Atlanta because am improperly rigged crane load came out of its sling and landed on a worker. Or the Turner site in Atlanta that had most of its workers run off when there was a sweep of 4 Atlanta area construction sites by immigration officials. I have never seen a safety inspector walking around their sites like I have seen at other construction sites. Start dropping 1 million dollar fines on them if they shrug off 100k dollar fines. They will get with the program.
December 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am
The only way for a company to change is to make that a decision and to have everyone involved. It should be policy for everyone to be safety conscience. It comes from the inside. We can fine people but it’s not going to do any good until that company WANTS to be safe. Maybe set up a program where companies and people are rewarded for records of being safe. Take the positive approach.
March 24th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I agree with Tim Weidrick, Until the employees are held accountable for their own actions safety will never be where it needs to be. The company i work for spends very large amounts of money and time with employee orientation job specific training and with safety managers and site safety people. We do daily safety meetings, JSAs STAs and SACs for every task. With all of that we still find people not following the rules or using the training they were provided.
It is like the States issuing a drivers licence. If the person driving does not follow the rules, that person is held responsable, not the state. What is the differance?
November 16th, 2010 at 9:29 am
I do agree with the fines, what i do not agree with is how these money’s are used. I believe a portion of the fine is to be given back to the company so they can invest into safety programs to help prevent these accidents. Also monitor or make the company show where these money’s are being spent. Raiseing these fines would be just if this would happen. This makes a safer work place and also makes a company think about where they have to spend there money.(Safety)